


Found Objects

by Deannie



Series: One Day at Red Cliff [2]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-09 20:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1996308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Because I know Buck’ll get us out. He wouldn’t leave me trapped anywhere if he could help it. He's not one to abandon family and he never gives up hope. It's the kind of thing you get used to after a few years, even if it don't always make sense."<br/><i>Written for the hc_bingo 2014 prompt: loss of possessions.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Found Objects

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story in Trifecta Bingo #1, which fulfills the "tune-in" achievement (all interconnected), the "Steadfast" achievement (all in the same fandom), and the "Serial Pleasures!" achievement (all TV fandom). Whew!

There was noise and dust and an almighty push of air and then nothing.

I don’t know how long it takes me to figure out I’m lying under something, and that should scare me, but my head hurts too much to care. Whatever's on me is heavy, really heavy. My chest hurts from the weight of it.

I reach my hands up to push it off and scream at the pain in my arm. I can’t hear the scream, though, and that _does_ scare me.

Where the heck am I?

The thing above me rolls off just like a body and I wish I had something to see with. I got a box of lucifers somewhere in my vest, but I ain’t moving my right arm again. I reach my left hand out and feel fabric that’s soft and scratchy at the same time... and moves. He’s breathing, whoever it is.

Why can’t I remember what happened?

My head hurts.

I bring my left hand back over to my vest, digging around until I find the little tin of matches. Whoever that is must be hurt pretty bad to just roll off like that. I got to use my right hand to hold the box to strike the match and it hurts, but not like moving my whole arm did.

It takes a minute to get it to light and my ears start ringing while I’m trying. They don't stop. I figure that’s good, right? Maybe I’m not deaf forever? I turn to the person next to me and gasp in surprise.

“Ezra!”

I still can’t hear myself, and he definitely can’t hear me. He’s lying on his back, out cold. I don’t see much blood or nothing, though it looks like he’s got a big bruise on his forehead. Even unconscious, he looks like he’s hurting.

Dynamite.

There was dynamite. I remember that much. The match burns down to my fingers and goes out as I drop it. Heck—I was so focused on Ezra, I didn’t think about anything else. Lighting the next match seems easier and I take a look around. We’re buried good and the whole place is covered in a thick red dust. Part of the stuff that makes up the cave around us looks like boulders, the rest is the wagon we were hiding behind while Goff’s men took potshots at us.

Goff. Ambrose Goff, right? Looked at Nathan like he was some piece of horse crap on his shoe?

And McAuliffe. He was aiming for the dynamite when—

Aw, heck. Ezra shoved me down behind those boulders—underneath him. Shielding me.

He better be okay.

I can’t see any way out of here, and I’m not sure I could do anything to dig us out anyway. Pretty sure I broke my arm. Hurts like… I suppose I can say Hell in here, right? Because that's what it hurts like.

Wonder when Buck’ll get us out.

Because I know Buck’ll get us out. He wouldn’t leave me trapped anywhere if he could help it. He's not one to abandon family and he never gives up hope. It's the kind of thing you get used to after a few years, even if it don't always make sense.

But he was running toward us when that wagon exploded. I remember that. On the other side of the wagon, too. What if…?

No. Buck’s not dead. He ain’t dead any more than Ezra is. He and Josiah’ll dig us out and Nathan’ll patch Ezra up, and Vin and Chris have probably already—

Vin. He got shot, right? I remember the blue streak Ezra cursed…

The buzzing in my ears is broken by a moan, and I turn toward Ezra just as the match burns down again. Dang it! I feel around for something to light. Some torch I can make, maybe?

All I come up with is a piece of wood about as long as my arm. Probably cook us both if I lit that. Heck. I light another lucifer and hope I have enough.

In the flickering light, the area around us looks small but there’s actually enough room to move around and the ceiling’s not too low. Must be air coming in somehow since we haven’t suffocated. I roll on my side, biting back a scream as my right arm moves with me. Buck better hurry up—I hate Nathan’s tea as much as everybody else, but I could sure use some right now.

There’s another moan and I remember where I am.

“Ezra?” There's no response and I shake him—just a little bit. Would be a little less worrisome in here if he was awake, too. "Ezra, wake up."

His whole body stiffens at my call and the holler he gives out when he tries to move is tinny to my ringing ears, but really loud in the closed space. He curls away from me and I think he probably passes out again right off, if he was ever actually conscious to begin with. I gasp as his back rolls up to face me. The sight of it is bad enough to turn my stomach.

But after fighting down my breakfast for a few minutes, I realize it could be worse. His jacket and shirt are in shreds and his back is covered in splinters and cuts. We were close enough to that dynamite that I suppose I should be surprised that he’s not burned head to toe. Looks like he’s singed some on his shoulders, but—

Dang it! The match is out, and I grab for that length of wood in the sudden darkness, cursing my burned fingers.

Where the heck is Buck, anyway?

Like he heard me—or more likely heard Ezra—I hear Buck’s voice hollering for me. He sounds panicked.

I’m kind of feeling panicked, too, though, so that’s okay.

“I’m here, Buck!” I don’t know how loud I’m yelling, but I ain’t gonna stop ‘til he digs us out. “I’m in here!”

It ain’t long before he half buries me in a cloud of red dirt and rocks and I brush it off my face to look up into a lantern. It’s night behind him and I wonder how long they’ve been looking for us. Buck looks a little wild.

“Heck, Buck,” I say, real quick, so he’ll know I’m okay. “What took you so long?”

“Damn it, kid, you okay?” he calls. Sounds like he's whispering, but I’m pretty sure he ain’t. “Ezra in there?”

The lantern comes down far enough I can feel the heat coming too close and I shrink away a little. Reminds me that it's dang cold in here, though. I’m shivering now, which I don’t think I was doing before.

I hear Buck curse as he catches sight of Ezra’s back. “He breathing?” he asks, like he isn’t sure he wants to hear the answer.

“Yeah.” By the shock that runs real quick over his face, it’s clear he didn’t expect Ezra to be alive looking like that.

“Well, you keep him that way, okay?” he tells me. The look he gives me is deep and worried. "How about you?"  
  
"Broke my arm," I offer. Don't need him worrying too much. I'm okay. "Ain't bad, as long as I don't move it."  
  
He grins and I can see him relax a little. "Well, don't move it then." He looks around in the dark outside for a minute before turning back to me. “I got a little more work to do to clear this out. Sit tight.” He hands me the lantern and I hear him move off.

And it’s then that I realize I don’t hear anyone else.

Which starts me shaking even harder. But they ain’t dead. They ain’t—the explosion couldn't have been that big! Besides, we can't be taken down by someone like Goff. Not us.

“Buck!” I shout. I hear him come back at a run. Guess I sound kind of wild, but the others should be here. They should be helping get us out.

His face pops into the space he’s already cleared, concern writ large in all the dirt and grime and tracks that look suspiciously like leftovers from tears but probably aren’t. “You okay, JD?”

I shake my head. Depends on the answer. “Where is everybody?”

He looks grim and my shivering stops. They ain’t dead. They _ain’t_!

“Vin’s stowed over by the fire,” he says quick, like he sees how worried I am. “Took a rifle shot in the shoulder.” That’s not enough and he knows it. “Josiah patched him up before he and Chris went after Nathan.” He takes a deep breath. “We figure he's trailing Goff or the bastard took him with when he hightailed it out of here.”

Damn.

“Look, kid, I’ll get you two out of there as soon as I can.” He’s heading off already. “I’ll bring you a couple of blankets to keep you warm in the meantime.”

I take a deep breath and try to calm down, watching in the lantern’s glow as Ezra breathes next to me. Everyone’s alive. Chris and Josiah’ll find Nathan. It’s gonna be just fine….

I look around the small space, now I have the time to do it carefully. I reach out to pick up Ezra’s Colt from the rocks nearby—don’t know where his Remington but there’s no need for him to lose both guns. One of my is in plain sight beside me, and I glimpse a bulge under Ezra’s leg that might be the other one. I’ll leave it there until Buck’s here to help move him.

Where the heck is my hat?

My head hurts even more after moving around like that, the pounding starting to build into something I can’t ignore. My arm is killing me…

Nathan’s missing and Vin’s shot and Ezra’s….

It all just jumps me of a sudden. I barely hear Buck’s call to me as the rush of blood in my ears whites out the whole world.

 

“JD?”

I crack my eyes open and groan at the sun as it rises.

“Come on, Kid.” Buck. “You’re scaring ol’ Buck here.”

Why am _I_ scaring him? I open my eyes all the way and look around, surprised to find myself next to a campfire. Buck is looming over me like a mother hen.

I was buried a minute ago, right?

“Wake up and tell him to shut up so I can sleep.”

Vin sounds cranky, but alive. I turn to the side and see him propped up against a tree nearby, and he gives me a smile and a wink. His arm’s in a sling and he looks like he’s hurting pretty bad. Like Ezra was looking, but with his eyes open.

I start looking around. “Ezra?”

“Here, Mr. Dunne.” I can’t see him, but he sounds awful. And kind of drunk. Where the heck is he?

Buck seems to understand my confusion and smiles. “We got him laid out on his stomach across the way. Figure he’s safest like that ‘til Nathan can take a good look at him.”

I nod, everything coming back to me. I feel a lot clearer minded than I was before. “They back?”

Buck shakes his head sadly, and in the growing light I can see bruises and a couple of cuts on his face and neck that I couldn’t see in the darkness. “They’ll be here. Chris figured they’d head for Mexico and the best way to get there from here is the Perdido trail. There’s a good stopover about half a day’s ride from here—old miner’s camp. Vin thought they might hole up there for a bit, seeing as we’re dead and all.”

Yeah. Except we’re not and they don’t know it—gives us the advantage. I hope Chris and Josiah get to Nathan before anything happens. Goff is a bigot and he’s not afraid of killing. And Nathan don’t deal with his type so well. He’s usually one for keeping a level head, but he’s been itching for a fight since we found John Hildebrant’s cowhands hanging from those trees.

“They’ll find ‘em.”

I smile at Buck’s statement. He never has any doubt that everything’s going to work out right. Just like I knew he was going to dig us out. We ain’t going to be stopped by someone like Goff.

“I know,” I reply. “Just wondering how many of them Nathan took down.”

Buck chuckles at that. “That’s the spirit, Kid,” he says, smacking me lightly on the shoulder and standing up, heading for the fire. I yawn and stretch carefully, noticing suddenly that my arm has a splint on it. As I look at it, I kind of start to feel groggy all over again. My arm feels a lot better, but my head still hurts and I'm awful tired….

 

I think I must have dozed, because the sun has jumped in the sky and Ezra’s sitting up across from me, trying to drink something from a tin cup. He looks horrible. The bruise on his forehead is deep black and ugly and his eyes are squinting like he can barely see.

“Awake again, Mr. Dunne?” he grates quietly.

I just nod carefully, looking around. Vin is sleeping sitting up and Buck’s nowhere in sight, but I can hear the sound of wood cracking. He must be stocking up for the fire. I don’t think we’re moving very soon, even if Nathan and the others got back right now.

I reach for my watch to try to find out how late it is and find nothing where the chain should be.

Must have lost it in the blast.

“Damn.”

It’s stupid to be so broken up about a dumb watch—a cheap one that could barely hold time for half a day without winding—but… My ma gave me that watch. Wasn’t much, but it was what she could afford for a present when I turned eighteen.

“JD?” Ezra’s voice has gone from pained to worried. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” I whisper. I clear my throat and continue. “I’m fine. I just… lost my watch in the explosion, I guess.”

He doesn’t nod, but I wonder if that’s because he thinks his head’ll fall off if he does. He does kind of look like he wants to puke and I wonder why he’s sitting up. “I fear my hat has gone the way of your watch. It’s a shame. I did love that hat.” He squints a little more and I brush self-consciously at my eyes. “I expect it will be easier to replace than your watch, however.”

I snort. “Wasn’t nothing but a busted watch, Ezra,” I say quietly. And it wasn’t. Ma gave it to me, but she gave me so much more. Like raising me with the courage to come out West and find friends like these guys. A brother like Buck and men I'd die for who'd die for me...  
  
Gosh, I hope Nathan’s okay.

“Riders coming in,” Vin murmurs, suddenly wide awake and reaching for his rifle with his good hand. I notice Ezra’s gun and both of mine have been set near us, and I pick one of mine up as Ezra does the same, hissing in pain as he turns toward the hill behind him. I have a good view of the top of it, and I grin big as Prophet plods up from the backside. I hear a God awful loud whoop of joy from Josiah, and suddenly he, then Chris, and, more slowly, Nathan—leading a horse with a man bound to it—are headed down toward us.

Buck crashes out of the woods with a whoop of his own.

Everybody all together again.

I knew Goff couldn’t beat us!

 

The sun is setting again before most of us are settled and quiet by the fire. Buck’s off trying to round up our missing horses and get some more wood. Chaucer came back when Ezra whistled for him and my girl was following along behind him like a puppy. I know Buck’s worried about Pal, but she’s a smart horse. She’s probably just spooked is all; now Prophet and Pony are back, I reckon she and Nathan’s Washington will be right along. Vin joked earlier that Peso is probably just hiding to be ornery. I think Buck’s worried about him, too, though, so he’s gone out looking.

I figure it must have been hard for Buck to be the one who had to look for me and Ezra and take care of us all while Josiah and Chris rode off. He’s been kind of quiet and wanting to be off on his own, and he ain't talking much to Chris or to Vin. Maybe I’ll try to figure out what's going on when he comes back.

Ezra’s sleeping fitfully on his stomach, his back covered in the strips of shirts Nathan used for bandages. The cleaning of those cuts and burns had to hurt something horrible. Josiah'd had a pack of herbs in his saddlebags and he gave it to Buck before they went after Nathan, but Nathan's doctor's kit is wherever Washington is. He's worried about infection, but he says Ezra’ll be okay.

Me and Vin will be, too. He redid the splint on my arm and told me it’ll be good as new in a couple of months. Vin’s shoulder is good and clean and Josiah says it didn’t bleed too bad before he got the bullet out and got it bound up. Nathan was real glad of that. He said he seen it happen and thought it was a lot worse than it was.

He thought we were all dead, actually. Can’t quite get over that. I don’t want to think what that’d be like….

It’s taken all day to figure out what happened, but I remember now that Ezra saw something—or heard something, maybe. Buck was running toward us, yelling, and then Ezra poked his head up for a second and grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the rocks that we hadn’t been able to break cover to get to before. It was like he didn’t care that we could get shot being in the open that long. I figured out why he did it right about the time the dynamite blew.

Poor Nathan couldn’t see any of that from where he was, so it looked like we blew up. And then half the cliff slid down from the blast and….

He looked like he’d seen a ghost when he saw us by the campfire. Then he looked real guilty. I don’t think I should ask about that, but I figure it has something to do with McAuliffe, who’s breathing, but isn’t talking. His hand and knee are all bound up in bandages, but he won’t let Nathan near him to tend to them. He’s as much a bigot as Goff is, so that’s part of it, but he’s scared, too. I’m figuring Nathan's the one who shot him.

Can’t say I’m surprised.

Vin and Chris are talking quiet over the other side of the fire. Making plans to go after Goff, I reckon. I can’t believe he got away. But we’ll get him. We always do.

“Something to warm your stomach, John Dunne.” Josiah takes a seat next to me and plops a plate of beans in my lap. I didn’t know I was hungry, but the smell of it up close gets my mouth watering. I start eating with the spoon in my left hand and Josiah chuckles as I spill a little.

“I ain’t as good with my left hand,” I tell him. I don’t like being laughed at and he knows it.

“I’m not making fun, JD,” he says quietly. “I just had a few moments of despair yesterday. Wasn’t sure whether I’d ever see you shovel in food like that again.” He sounds real content and I smile back at him.

I look around suddenly. “Where’s Buck? Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

“I had to tie up the horses,” Buck says from behind me. “And find this.”

Something catches the light, dangling on a chain between me and the fire and I drop my fork to reach up and grab it. “My watch!”

Buck plops down on the other side of me and Josiah goes to get him a plate of beans, too. “Had to dig through half that mound to find it,” Buck says, all satisfied with himself. “But when Ezra told me you’d lost it, I figured I should at least try.”

I’m speechless for a minute, surprised they cared so much.

“It’s just a stupid watch,” I finally murmur.

“Memories of love ones past are never stupid, JD,” Josiah tells me as he hands off Buck’s plate.

I nod. No, I reckon they’re not.

“Did you find Ezra’s hat?” I ask suddenly.

Buck chuckles. “Of course I did,” he says, tossing the red-dusted Stetson over the fire so it lands on the ground next to Ezra’s bedroll. “We’d have to listen to him gripe for a year about that damn thing otherwise.” He sighs all long-suffering and whips something out from behind his back. “Unfortunately I found this too.”

My hat! I snatch it from him and put it on, ignoring the shower of dust that rolls off it.

Yuck. Except it got in my beans…

“Figured I wouldn’t hear the end of it from you, either.”

I grin. Buck’s full of it, sometimes. Glad he found my hat, though.

Chris is suddenly in front of us, crouching in the growing dark.

“Buck, Josiah? We’ll send Nathan back to town with McAuliffe and JD and Ezra. Rest of us are heading out at dawn.”

“No way!” I lean forward and my plate starts slipping and I try to grab at it with my right hand. Dang it, that hurts!

Buck reaches out to steady me. “Now come on, Kid, you’re in no condition—“

“Well, neither is Vin!” I cry, cradling my arm. This ain’t fair. “I got as much claim on Goff as you do!”

“Only one who’s got claim on Ambrose Goff is the hangman,” Chris says coldly, and I know that’s the end of it. He’s made up his mind. Wrong as I think it is, I ain’t going to win a fight like this.

“Did you tell Nathan Vin’s coming?” Buck asks as I settle down. There’s a smile in his voice.

Chris cracks one of his own. “Hell no. I’m letting Vin do that.”

“You’re a wise man,” Josiah says, standing.

“We’ll need some more water.” Chris is looking at Ezra sleeping across the way, so he doesn’t see Josiah stiffen or Buck jump to his feet and put a hand on Josiah’s shoulder.

I wonder what that’s about?

“I got it, Chris,” Buck says, grabbing one of the lanterns and heading toward the ruined cliff face.

Chris rises with a nod. “Get some sleep,” he says quietly. “We ride at dawn.”

In separate directions. I never like that.

I try to lie down in some position that doesn’t hurt and listen to everybody else settling around me. Peace drops over me as I hear a murmur without words from Josiah and an answering chuckle from Nathan. We’re all here. Shadows in our eyes for some and pain for the rest of us, but here.

Reckon we’ll get Goff to that hangman yet.

 

 

* * * *  
The End

 

 


End file.
